Signet rings: what the flat face is actually for

Signet rings date back to 1800 BC. That figure comes from Beth Bernstein, writing in The Jewellery Editor on 23 August 2015, and her point is the one worth keeping: the ring was not decoration, it was a signature. A seal pressed into wax was how a document was proved.

I have made jewellery by hand in London for 22 years, from a stall on Portobello Road to counters at Liberty, Selfridges, Harvey Nichols and Harrods. Rings come back to my bench more often than any other piece, signets most of all.

What actually makes a signet a signet

Not the band. One thing only: the flat face on the top, which is called the bezel. Everything below it is an ordinary ring. The face is the whole of it, and there are 3 quite different ways to work it.

1. Seal engraving, or intaglio. The design is cut down into the face in reverse, so that pressed into wax the impression comes out the right way round. Francesca Fearon, writing in The Jewellery Editor on 3 December 2024, describes intaglio as "a reverse carved style of hand engraving that creates a depression of varying depths in the material". That is the original signet, and the dearest, because it is cut by hand and cut backwards.

2. Surface engraving. The letters are cut into the face the right way round, so they read correctly on the hand and would come out mirrored in wax. This is what nearly every modern initial signet is, and unless you are sealing letters it is the sensible one.

3. A set face. A stone, or a panel of colour, sitting where the engraving would go. No wax, no reverse, just the flat top used as a frame.

Settle which of those 3 you want before you look at metals. It moves the price far more.

The one I would point most people at

The Diamond Signet Initial Ring is a proper signet with a stone set letter on the face, and it covers the whole range in 1 product: £75 in sterling silver, £85 in gold vermeil or rose gold vermeil, and £1,125 in 14kt solid yellow or white gold. Because the letter is set rather than cut, the listing says it cannot go on the 5 day express service. Stone setting takes the time it takes.

Any ring is a size question before it is a taste question, so start at the ring size guide. A signet carries most of its weight on top, so on a loose finger it turns and the face sits sideways. Size it to the base of the finger and accept a slightly firm fit over the knuckle rather than the other way round.

As for which finger, the convention is the little finger of the left hand, and it is only a convention. Bernstein's 2015 piece calls signets pieces "that can be worn on any finger, just as their original owners did", which is still the better advice.

2 more ways in

If a full signet face is more ring than you want, the Amara Initial Ring is the delicate version of the same idea, £175 in sterling silver, £215 in gold or rose gold vermeil and £850 in 9kt solid gold. The Yin Yang Signet Ring at £175 is the same flat face used for a symbol instead of a letter, which is what a signet did long before initials: a badge, not a name.

For something you can stack, the Initial Stackable Ring is a slim letter ring at £85 in sterling silver, £105 in gold or rose gold vermeil and £225 in 14kt solid gold, and 2 or 3 of those sit happily either side of a signet. If you would rather not guess a ring size, an Initial Charm is £25 and goes on a chain, and the chain guide will tell you what length to hang it on. Everything with a letter cut or set into it sits in engraved jewellery, and the pieces made in solid gold rather than plated are in 9kt solid gold.

If a signet ring has come to you

Signets are the ring most likely to be inherited, and the most likely to be unwearable the day it arrives. A crest worn smooth after 80 years on somebody's hand. A ring 3 sizes too big. Initials belonging to a name nobody in the family now shares. A thin shank worn through at the bottom.

All 4 of those are fixable, and none of them is a reason to leave the ring in a drawer. A worn crest can be recut. A shank can be rebuilt. The gold can be kept and the face reworked, or the piece melted and its stone reset into something wearable. That is what Second Life is: your stones, your gold, remade by hand in the London studio. Send a photograph and the estimate is free, with no obligation. If a piece really is past saving, recycling your jewellery is the other route.

The second life is the real one.

Every signet and letter ring in the workshop is in engraved jewellery. If there is a ring in a drawer you have never worn, send me a photograph through Second Life and I will tell you what could be done with it. Anna Lou x.

Questions I get asked

Which finger should a signet ring go on?

Traditionally the little finger of the left hand, which is where a sealing ring sat because it was pressed into wax with the hand at rest. There is no rule now, and index and ring fingers are both common. Wear it where the face sits flat and does not catch, and size it at the base of that finger using the ring size guide.

Can an inherited signet ring be resized and re-engraved?

Usually yes to both, though they are 2 separate jobs. Resizing a signet means cutting and rebuilding the shank without distorting the face, and a worn crest or set of initials can often be recut rather than replaced. Send a photograph through Second Life and you will have an estimate before anything is touched.

Will engraving on a signet ring wear away?

Slowly, yes, because the face is the part of the ring that meets everything. Deep seal engraving lasts longest, surface engraving in solid gold next, and shallow cutting in a plated metal softens first. A ring worn daily for 20 years will have a softer face than one kept for best, and that is not a fault. It is the record of it being worn.